CCNY’s Chai and Chat Reading Series Welcomes Author Irvin Weathersby, Jr. on Oct. 22

The City College of New York’s Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing’s annual Chai and Chat Reading Series kicks off with author and Professor Salar Abdoh (A Nearby Country Called Love) in conversation with writer Irvin Weathersby, Jr. on Wednesday, Oct. 22 at 6:30p.m. in the Rifkind Center, NAC 6/316. Weathersby is the CCNY Bernard Mendik Guest Professor and will read from his work. The event is free and open to the public. Prospective MFA candidates will have an opportunity to meet Program Director Michelle Valladares at the event.
 
Weathersby is a Brooklyn-based writer and professor from New Orleans. His writing has been featured in LitHub, Guernica, Esquire, The Atlantic, EBONY, and elsewhere. He earned an MFA from The New School, an M.A. from Morgan State University, and a B.A. from Morehouse College. He received fellowships and awards from the Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation, the Research Foundation of CUNY, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Mellon Foundation. In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art and Public Space is his first book.
 
The event is sponsored by the Bernard Mendik Fund.

About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Lightcast puts at $3.2 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers, and society. At City College, more than 16,500 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity, and scholarship. In 2023, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together,” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College's mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic, and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.

Thea Klapwald
e:  tklapwald@ccny.cuny.edu